Mauer’s likely ‘beautiful moment’: the call from the Hall

The details have grown fuzzy over the intervening two decades. Exactly who was in the room, or precisely where that room was … retrieving facts like that requires some extra thought.

But Paul Molitor can still feel the jolt of emotion that walloped him when the phone rang.

"Your heart leaps. It's a beautiful moment, because you realize what it means," Molitor said of that January afternoon in 2004. "Just that split-second — you never forget it."

It's a lightning strike Joe Mauer figures to experience on Tuesday. That's the day when, at 5 p.m., the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce which of 26 candidates will be immortalized on a plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y., later this summer. But shortly before the news is broadcast on live television, Hall President Josh Rawitch privately delivers the thrilling bulletin to each of the elected.

With a life-changing phone call.

"I remember it was emotional for me. The call, I remember the cheering in the background from my family while [then-Hall President Jane Forbes Clark] congratulated me and told me the vote total," Molitor said. "There were a lot of embraces, and you just kind of cherish that moment. I remember how it makes you reflect on the time spent through your youth and becoming a professional, and all the people who helped you on that journey. It just kind of hits you on that day. It hits you how grateful you are."

Mauer — like Molitor, a St. Paul native who became one of the most accomplished and celebrated players in the sport — is all but certain to experience that tidal wave of emotion on Tuesday. An accounting of the nearly 200 ballots, or roughly half of those expected to be cast, that have been made public over the past six weeks by voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America shows that Mauer has received the votes of 83.1% of them.

That's well above the 75% plurality required for election.

"We've never seen anyone above 80 [percent] at this point drop below 75 in the final results," said Ryan Thibodaux, who has maintained a website tracking Hall of Fame ballots for the past decade. "I suppose there could always be a first time, but he's still well above 80 percent, so it's hard to imagine he would fall that far" in the official tally.

Mauer has been reluctant to publicly discuss his anticipation for the big day, and has said he expects to spend Tuesday "just kind of lying low with the family, anxiously awaiting." But he conceded Friday, during a television appearance to promote a just-published children's book about his life, that his excitement is growing.

"It's pretty emotional, but you know, it's out of my hands. Tuesday will come and go [and] hopefully we get that call," Mauer said on KSTP's "Twin Cities Live." "But if not, that's OK, too, because I've had an opportunity to reflect on the impact that people have had on my life. It's been a lot of fun to share those memories."

And becoming a first-ballot honoree, like Molitor? "Yeah, if we could just do it once, that would be great," Mauer joked.

It would also be historic. Only 18 players whose careers were primarily spent catching have received the game's highest honor at the museum in Cooperstown. And only two of them — Johnny Bench in 1989 and Iván Rodríguez in 2017 — cleared the 75% hurdle in their first year on the ballot. Even such luminaries as Yogi Berra, Carlton Fisk and Mike Piazza fell short on their first try.

Molitor said he believes voters who make decisions by comparing raw statistics sometimes overlook how the physical challenges of catching can damage a player's offensive production. Mauer himself had to move to first base in 2014 when concussions took too big a toll.

In addition, a segment of voters historically had refused to vote for any but the most ultra-qualified candidates in their first year of eligibility.

"Some voters over the years I think tried to 'tier' the Hall somewhat. They felt there was something different about being a first-ballot Hall of Famer, which I don't think is true," Molitor said. "It seems like the new generation of voters have kind of opened up their thinking, and aren't so determined to make people wait."

Few waited longer than Bert Blyleven, who despite winning 287 games, throwing 60 shutouts and striking out 3,701 hitters — to this day, still the fifth most in baseball history — waited in vain by the phone for 13 consecutive years before it finally rang in 2011. The long delay sapped some of the ecstasy from the moment.

"I remember it was sort of a sigh of relief," the former Twins broadcaster said. "But Jane Clark told me, 'This is an honor that less than 1 percent of all ballplayers ever get.' You take a lot of pride in it. I certainly do, and I know that Joe will, too."

Even if it's hard for the notoriously even-keeled Mauer to show it. "You know Joe," Molitor said with a laugh. "Someone watching [his reaction] from outside the window might not know if [the news] is good or bad."

His family and friends will have no such reticence, both Hall of Famers said.

"It's a big day, but it feels like it means more to those around you," Blyleven said. "I'm fortunate that my mother was there with me the day I got in. Sharing that with the people you love is the best part."

It could also add a tinge of melancholy to the day.

"I know when Joe gets that news, he's going to think about his Pops and how much his dad had to do with him getting there," Blyleven said of Jake Mauer, who died almost exactly one year ago. "His brothers and his mother, too. It's a great sports family, and I know they all must be so excited."

Just like Molitor was in 2004. Excited, optimistic — but guardedly so. There was nobody tracking ballots then the way Thibodaux does now, and no Hall of Famers at the time who had spent such a large part of his career — 43.6% of his at-bats — as a designated hitter.

"I had heard some negatives [about] being a DH, about how my career totals were increased because I was able to play longer than I would have otherwise by being a DH," Molitor said. "So I was hopeful, but I kind of prepared myself for not getting in. You want to be prepared for the disappointment if it doesn't go your way. I guess you figure if you get in, that kind of takes care of itself."

It did. The Hall of Fame told each candidate that they would be contacted within a two-hour window if they had been elected, and Molitor remembers the phone ringing just after 1 p.m., the very beginning of that window. His name had been checked on 85.2% of the ballots, he was told, more than any other candidate that year. Dennis Eckersley had also been elected from a strong ballot, which included nine other candidates who eventually were selected to Cooperstown.

"The mood got very celebratory, obviously," Molitor said. "About two hours later, I started thinking about my speech," even though he wouldn't deliver it for another seven months.

So what does Mauer do if his total somehow hasn't reached 75%? What if the phone doesn't ring?

"You move on with your life. It's not the end of the world," Blyleven said. "You have a beer and wait another year, that's what you do."